DS

Animal Crossing: Wild World

December 17, 2005

DS / Reviews / by Edward Pollard Make a comment! / Tweet it!

This should be the shortest review in the world. You all played Animal Crossing on GameCube, right? Of course you did. Well, the sequel is here and it fits in your (oversize) pocket. Review over. Go. Buy. Now.

But that doesn’t do things justice, does it?

Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS is the wildly addictive small scale life simulator from Nintendo. Take over a virtual ‘you’ and move into a small town filled with cute little animals. Play botanist or paleontologist. Collect bugs, catch fish, and decorate your house. You want to impress the Happy Room Academy, don’t you? Of course you do! Now go find the matching sofa for that table.

If you’ve never played Animal Crossing before you’ll find this introduction more than welcoming. Starting with a cab ride to town, you’re first encounter is with the salty Kap’n ,and the exchange you have with him will impact your avatar in your new virtual life. Once you arrive at town hall you’re basically free to do whatever you want. Inevitably you’ll run into Tom Nook, local merchant, and helpful raccoon. Not only will he give you a part-time job to teach you the basics of town life, but he’ll give you a place to live – for a price. That looming debt load is the only direction you’ll ever be given in Animal Crossing, and it’s all you’ll ever need.

The array of things to do daily in the world of Animal Crossing is pretty staggering, and you typically have no real pressure to do any of them. Oh, sure, planting flowers looks nice but it doesn’t pay as nearly well as fishing. But do you even want to work on your debt right now? It’s up to you – no worries about Tom Nook coming around looking for his share. Want to help the museum fill its collection? Or do you just want to decorate your house? Eventually you’re small cottage will be too small, and if you pay down your mortgage to Mr. Nook he’ll be happy to renovate – for a price. This is how the circle is brought full, as a core component of the customization in Animal Crossing demands you pay back Tom Nook someday. It is a gentle push, but a constant one.

Along the way to financial freedom you’ll meet a wide array of characters – people will move in, people will move out. You’ll send and receive letters from townsfolk, run their errands, and solve their problems. You’ll pluck weeds and harvest fruit, and every task you can undertake has real, tangible rewards that will advance your quest to further personalize yourself or your home.

Additions to this version of Animal Crossing are slight – hats and accessories are now available to further customize your character. A watering can lets you give flowers and saplings an extra boost. And new to the museum is an astronomy lab where you’ll be able to customize the constellations of the Animal Crossing world. Fish and bugs are of a wider variety and are slightly more common. It is worth noting that none of these new additions are nearly as entertaining as the original tasks, but they do add a bit of flavor.

However, the big addition to the Animal Crossing universe is pretty impactful: online play. As the second title from Nintendo to support the newly established Wi-Fi Connection, Wild World allows up to three people to visit your town over the internet. While there is no in-game town browser – you’ll need to share A

Metroid Prime Pinball

November 28, 2005

DS / Reviews / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Pinball is something that most of our parents grew up with, and probably very few of us have had the pleasure of playing a truly great pinball game. My closest interaction to pinball in recent years has been purchasing the backlit film to a [i]Super Mario Brothers[/i] pinball game off eBay. The game of pinball is an ingeniously simple yet addicting one. Throw in one of Nintendo’s most successful and loved franchises, and you are sure to have a winner on your hands.

Fans of the [i]Metroid franchise[/i] are undoubtedly aware of their heroine’s ability to turn into a Morph Ball. This unique ability was a perfect fit for the [i]Metroid[/i] franchise to make the jump to pinball. [i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] has a few different game modes: multi-mission, single mission, and multiplayer. Multi-mission is where the bulk of gameplay occurs. It allows you to choose from two starting tables and then gradually transition to additional tables. These additional tables are then unlocked in the single-mission gameplay. Multiplayer is a mere score competition between up to eight people and requires only one gamecard, which is a nice feature.

[i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] really excels in its [i]Metroid[/i] theme. The music, visuals, and even special effects are spot on for the franchise. Enemies from the [i]Metroid[/i] games also rear their ugly faces. Throughout the tables, you will be able to activate short minigames that bring Samus out of Morph Ball form and pit you against a bevy of nasty enemies. Lucky for you, Samus is packing a gun. Completion of these ‘mini-modes’ results in lots of points to boost your score. Things like force field and multi-ball also show up to aid your pursuit of an ever-growing high score.

Boss fights also appear on various tables. These boss fights typically result in you hitting the ball into the boss to defeat them. Your Morph Ball also packs a life meter, so be careful.

[i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] sports a number of different methods to control the various flippers. You can use the shoulder buttons, Left and Right, or Left and A. My favorite was the Left and A combination. You can also use the touch screen to bump the table. Since [i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] makes use of both screens on the DS, there can be a slight adjustment to make when keeping track of the ball’s position as it travels between the two screens. This should be a relatively quick adjustment for most people.

A neat bonus included with [i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] is the rumble pak. The rumble pak looks like a black GBA cartridge and fits into the GBA slot of the DS. It gives a nice amount of force feedback when the ball hits bumpers. It adds to the realism of the pinball experience. If you don’t want to play with vibration, you can remove the pak or disable it in the game options.

[i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] is an extremely fun game that really could have benefited from additional tables. The game is addictive enough that even the limited number of tables will keep you coming back for more. [i]Metroid Prime Pinball[/i] is definitely a must-own game for any DS owner, and even more so for [i]Metroid[/i] fans.

Metroid Prime Pinball

November 17, 2005

DS / Reviews / by Jason Dobson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

When it comes to plain and simple pinball, one would assume that there isn’t much innovation left to be uncovered. Don’t tell that to the development talent at Fuse Games Limited however, as they seem to have their minds continually geared towards reinventing this arcade parlor pastime. Founded in 2002 by the creators of the Pro Pinball series of games, Fuse has continually shown the gaming community their unique take on the pinball experience. In 2004 they released Mario Pinball Land for the Game Boy Advanced to mixed reviews, but despite misgivings players had about the game few could argue against its sense of style. Not to be daunted by the words of critics, Fuse has once again decided to let players experience their passion for pinball, this time through Nintendo’s timeless Metroid franchise. Developed for the DS platform, Metroid Prime Pinball is in every way a superior experience to what players were given care of Mario and company, and while it is still very much a pinball game, it is anything but simple or plain.

The concept behind Metroid Prime Pinball is relatively straightforward. Samus Aran, the bounty hunter heroine and star of the Metroid franchise, is capable of rolling herself into a ball via her power suit. In Metroid Prime and its sequel players were given the opportunity to experience new and interesting ways this ball could impact gameplay care of the games’ 3D environment. Fuse has taken the next step, and has engineered a pinball game based around this ability to roll about, lay bombs, and transform back into Samus’ regular form in order to gun down on-screen baddies. The end result, thanks to a number of little touches from the Metroid cannon, is extremely well-received.

What is perhaps most striking about Metroid Prime Pinball is how Fuse has managed to capture the ambiance of the Metroid Prime universe so well. Perhaps it is the expert usage of many of the series’ most recognizable tunes, or the game’s table designs that each draw from particular settings within the Metroid Prime titles. Whatever the case, playing Metroid Prime Pinball is engrossing, much more so than one might expect a pinball game to be. This is true even for someone who is not a fan of pinball games, but instead is simply someone who enjoys the source material.

However, for those players without a degree of skill at directing a ball amidst a barrage of obstacles and enemies, this particular pinball experience will no doubt result its share of frustration. Succeeding in Metroid Prime Pinball can prove to be exceedingly difficult, and those players who give up easily will most likely never see some of the more rewarding unlockable aspects this game has to offer. Players begin with a paltry two tables available to the played upon: Pirate Frigate and Tallon Overworld. New tables are unlocked by playing through the game’s Multi Mission Mode and it’s here where a player’s skill at keeping their ball in play will be viciously tested.

With just two initial balls in reserve, a player is tasked with completing a number of objectives in order to collect artifacts. While most of these objectives are fairly simple to complete, doing so while also trying to keep the Samus Ball out of the gutter can prove challenging, especially as the game continues and the enemies such as infamous Space Pirates and swarms of beetles begin to attack at a frenetic pace. However, practice does yield results, and the sense of accomplishment after unlocking a new table is considerable. New tables are then available in the game’s Single Mission Mode, wherein a player competes to attain the highest score possible.

The meat of the game, however, remains in the Multi Mission offering. Here not only are tables unlocked in the aforementioned manner, but power-ups such as missiles and power bombs are earned as well. Numerous mini-games also become available in this mode, such as a quick outing that has a player pressing the shoulder buttons in quick successions in order to bound up a wall in order to attain an extra ball. Boss fights also play a role in this mode, as favorites such as the giant rock beast from Metroid Prime‘s Phendrana Drifts have been recreated in this decidedly different take on the classic franchise.

The game’s controls are simple, but some aspects, such as the way the touch screen has been utilized, do take some getting used to. A pinball game just wouldn’t feel complete without some way to bump to table in order to affect the ball’s direction. Metroid Prime Pinball emulates this aspect of the classic game by allowing a player to touch and then drag the stylus or their finger across the screen. Here is where the game trips itself up a bit in terms of gameplay, as it’s simply not feasible to maintain the kind of agility this game demands while at the same time manipulating the stylus. Most players are likely to forget this aspect of the game altogether in favor of perfecting their skill at directing the ball at the various ramps and objects while keeping tabs on a table’s particular angles. A better solution, arguably, would have been to include a kind of gyroscope similar to what players experienced with WarioWare: Twisted!, but as this would have to have been somehow shoehorned into the DS Rumble Pack, it is understandable why this alternate approach was used.

Metroid Prime Pinball is a fun and additive game that proves that sometimes genres need not be mutually exclusive in order to succeed. The game’s pinball mechanics, save for the somewhat inept table-tilting feature, are expertly implemented, and the numerous flavors of Metroid have been liberally sprinkled throughout the experience the ensure fans of the franchise will come away both smiling and humming a familiar tune. Plus, it’s a terrific appetizer to whet players’ appetites as they wait for Metroid Prime Hunters.

Mario Kart DS

November 17, 2005

DS / Reviews / by Jason Dobson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Mario Kart‘s official foray into the area of online gaming has to be one to most anticipated videogame milestones of the year. The series that spearheaded the kart-racing phenomenon has with each sequel proven that it is still the benchmark against which all similar titles are measured. Now, Mario Kart DS continues this trend by building upon past success, and delivering an experience that includes the best of previous series entries, alongside new features – not the least of which is a terrific online component – that further elevate this classic franchise to near perfection. The essence of Mario Kart‘s simple and exhilarating gameplay remains intact and much the same as it has ever been. It’s a racing game that’s easy to pick up and near-impossible to put down, and is instantly accessible – and enjoyable – by anyone who fancies themselves as a gamer. Plus, the fact that it manages to bank on nostalgia and bundle together the best bits of past Mario Kart titles is only icing on this very delicious cake.

Few franchises could get away with so little innovation over such an extended period, yet somehow Nintendo makes it work. Mario Kart DS is much the same game that we have been playing since the original. Sure, some things have been tweaked, characters and items have been added and the tracks are now bumpier than they were in 1992, but the experience still boils down to wacky races, epic power slides and lots of fun. The game includes a solid group of Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants to race, as well as a healthy selection of tracks, both new and past favorites. Mario Kart DS is everything you have come to expect and enjoy about Nintendo’s racing opus.

Only now you can take the action online. This was something that was sorely missed in Double Dash!!, and has been salivated over ever since. While the Nintendo DS was originally seen by many as a gimmick with little lasting appeal, recent months have shown that the touchable platform is more than just a passing fancy. Nintendo has forgotten more about making handheld gaming viable than most companies will ever know, and the DS has in its first year gone from being a mere curiosity to becoming the portable to beat. The release of the DS also marked the first sign of Nintendo taking online gaming seriously, and while it took them a year before games would take advantage of the platform’s online capabilities, it has been worth the wait.

Getting online with Mario Kart DS is much less painful than many anticipated, and anyone with ready access to a hotspot or wireless router (provided that it’s supported) will be online with their DS in minutes. If you don’t have a supported router on hand, you can fork over the cash for Nintendo’s own Wi-Fi USB Connector as a means to get your race on. Searching for online matches can be restricted to your specific region, established friends or rivals, or simply worldwide. In our experience, finding match ups can take from just a few seconds to several minutes, but this could be more a case of the online community not coming into its own yet rather than a problem with the infrastructure itself. Time will tell. Another thing to keep in mind when playing online is that this mode uses up the DS battery much quicker than when playing solo, and nothing is quite as irritating for all parties involved as having a racer drop out in the middle of a contest due to running out of juice.

As good as the single-player racing is – and it is terrific – Mario Kart is, and always has been about racing against other players. Mario Kart DS is no different. There is just something special about the unpredictability that comes with taking on a group of other people, anonymous or otherwise. However, online matches are somewhat limited, supporting only four racers simultaneously and just a handful of the game’s tracks. In addition, some matches will end up being between only two or three players, and the game unfortunately does not fill in the missing ranks with AI racers. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but it can make for some lonely laps. Then again, as before, once the online community takes off, this may not even be an issue. One thing that does feel lacking, however, is any sort of lobby or chat functionality. It would have been nice to be able to organize races beforehand, rather than leaving match ups up to pure and simple fate, and it just feels awkward not to be able to tell a player you just forced to eat your dust that it was, at then end of it all, a good game.

When you tire of racing online – which won’t happen but just for the sake of argument let’s pretend – there are also a bevy of offline and wireless modes to enjoy. Grand Prix is arguably the best of these, offering three different speed classes, four separate Cup challenges, and a total of thirty-two different tracks (sixteen new courses, and sixteen pulled from past Mario Kart titles). Battle Mode also returns, allowing you to hunt down up to seven friends or AI opponents in either Balloon Battle (the classic mode in which you use items to pop your opponents’ balloons) or Shine Runners (a new mode wherein you all collect as many shines as possible, and those with the fewest shines get booted out over time). Other modes include old staples, such as Time Trials, which allows you to compete against your best times, or even to download another player’s ghost wirelessly to test you mettle against their proven skill. The Vs mode is also interesting, in that it allows you to compete alone or as a team in a predetermined number of races. Lastly, there are the single-player missions, which amount to a series of progressively more difficult challenges across six separate levels. While not the meat and potatoes of this game by any means, these are a great way to pass the time alone, and can serve to unlock some of the game’s hidden goodies.

Mario Kart DS is reason alone to own the DS platform. All of the fun that has been intrinsic to the series is intact, and the much-anticipated online component simply seals the deal. This is best game in the series by far, and perhaps the best kart-style racing game ever to come along. Every second you spend playing the game is done so with a smile and an aching thumb – hallmarks of a true classic. So what are you waiting for? Design your decal, pick your racer and start your engines. I’ll see you at the finish line.

Trace Memory

November 17, 2005

DS / Reviews / by Jason Dobson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Adventure games are enjoying a kind of renaissance, with companies expressing an interest in dipping their creative toes in the pools of a genre many consider past its prime. However, the recently release Indigo Prophecy and Cing’s Trace Memory for the DS both prove that there is still a lot of adventuring to be had. Trace Memory is an engaging story about a young girl who, up until recently, believed her father had passed away. Ashley, the girl in question, recently discovered that not only was her father, a scientist researching human memory, was still alive, but that he wanted her to travel to a remote island so they could meet after several years. However, her father is nowhere to be seen when see arrives at the island in question, and the ensuing adventure to find out just what is going on proves to be a short, sweet and endearing tale that is punctuated with both puzzles and a splash of mystery.Cing’s attempt to take a genre considered by many to be more at home on the PC and instead have players experience it on Nintendo’s touchable handheld succeeds more than it stumbles. Using the stylus and touch screen in combination with the buttons and d-pad proves itself to offer both smooth and intuitive gameplay. The bottom touch screen depicts the action from a top down perspective, and allows players to either move Ashley about by touching where on the screen they would like her to go, or by using the d-pad in a more traditional manner. The top screen, on the other hand, shows a still picture of the area Ashley is facing at a point in time. For example, walking up to a painting on the bottom screen would result in a picture of that painting appearing on the top screen. In addition, clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the touch screen replaces the top down view with the contents of the top screen. Here players can use the stylus to click on and examine the view more closely, uncovering items, clues, and the occasional puzzle. This interface plays perfectly to the strengths of the handheld, and is ideally suited to the DS.

The gameplay is based not around action, but rather is very evocative of Cyan World’s Myst in both its design and execution. The narrative is paced in a very leisurely manner, and even when the mystery begins to unravel players can still pick up and play the game for a few minutes at a time without feeling rushed or otherwise racing against any sort of clock. This is helped by the ability to save anywhere, which again suits the platform and players’ tendencies to turn it on and play intermittently between real-world activities. Likewise, the majority of the game’s puzzles are quite easy, which makes them more of an interesting diversion rather than the frustrating roadblocks found in many adventure games. However, this also equates to an experience that is far from challenging, and players looking to give this brain a workout might come away less than satisfied.

The game’s simple yet effective controls echo that of the story, which is likewise constructed to deliver a worthwhile experience over the course of its few hours of adventuring. By PC gamers’ standards the story is sure to come off as noticeably short winded, but for a handheld the length is ideal. However, while the amount of time it takes to see Trance memory to conclusion is but a few hours, the time spent on Blood Edward Island is nonetheless worthwhile. What begins as simple search for her past really begins to take on a much deeper meaning as the plot develops, and soon the game is as much about Ashley’s own self-exploration and the evaluation of her present self as it is about discovering the whereabouts of her father.

Trace Memory is certainly refreshing, and is one of the best adventure games to come along this year. It is the game’s endearing story and characters, coupled with an intriguing adventure that help to make Trace Memory succeed in being truly memorable, pardon the pun. The game makes excellent use of the DS platform’s unique attributes, and tells an endearing, if only short-lived tale of exploration and self-discovery. Trace Memory comes highly recommended.

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